The Illusions of Life (English)

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Contents1. The Illusion of Birth2. The Illusion of the Body3. The Illusion of the Ego4. The Illusion of the Mind5. The Illusion of Thought6. The Illusion of a Doer7. The Illusion of the Five Senses8. The Illusion of Time9. The Illusion of Behaviour10.The Illusion of Karma11.The Illusion of Money

12. The Illusion of Love13. The Illusion of Relationships14. The Illusion of Problems15. The Illusion of Questions and Answers16. The Illusion of Fear17. The Illusion of Violence18. The Illusion of Duality19. The Illusion of Object20. The Illusion of Death21. The Illusion of Searching for Enlightenment

PrefaceMan seems to have harnessed the infinite resources of this planet so efficiently; he believes that he has made remarkable progress in scientific, technological and social environment. There is little that is not available to him for engaging his conditioned, desired interests and enhancing bodily comforts. However, blessed with such enrichments, and in pursuit of contentment, satisfaction and happiness, experience shows that man has found none of these, but rather their opposite. He appears to be lost in a web of illusion and ignorance.

This web is not impenetrable. In his book, Self-Enquiry ‘The Illusions of Life’, Dr. Vijai S. Shankar, a man who has perceived his True Identity to be a state beyond body and mind, indeed beyond man himself, gives deep insights into the nature of each illusion. Freedom is to be found not in any dismissal of the illusion, but in its understanding. The reader will come to discover that the mind, preconditioned by its beliefs and limited to the world of relativity and fiction, cannot comprehend the depth of meaning in this book, for it takes its stand in the Absolute nature.

This book is for those men and women who are earnestly searching for full realisation of their True Identity. Let them read it, above all, with patience, so that the words may be first a window, then an open door to freedom. Such is the substance and heart of this book: it is a wonder; it will touch the lives of all those into whose hands it happens to fall.